This Family of Mine by Gotti Victoria

Author:Gotti, Victoria [Gotti, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2009-09-29T05:00:00+00:00

IT WAS NOT all bad news for my family in the early eighties. We were getting ready for the first Gotti wedding, Angel’s. My sister and I behaved like two schoolgirls; shopping for a wedding gown, the perfect invites, and bridal party favors. We were always close growing up. Sharing a bedroom always made us closer. I was happy for my sister. No one deserved to be happier than her. But I was also scared. I didn’t want my own room—I didn’t want to be left behind. I set aside my unhappiness though, and watched my sister shine. It was a lavish event at La Mer in Brooklyn. There were nearly six-hundred guests; Dad never did anything on a small scale in those days. Generally the hall was large enough to host three weddings at a time. But Dad rented all three floors, so Angel’s wedding was the only affair that day. She and Louis Albano were married on a sunny day in September 1983. I was the maid of honor. Unlike my wedding plans, Angel had a full male and female bridal party. Because we had three floors of guests, the bride and groom as well as the bridal party had to be announced on all three floors. Angel was exhausted after dancing the first dance three times!

It was the first important Gotti gathering since Frankie’s death, and it was a real tearjerker. Every time a sad song played we all cried. When a special toast was made in memory of my brother Frankie, my sister and I ran to the bathroom in tears. Mom was also inconsolable, while Dad wore his best poker face and tried hard to be an affable and charming host. Yet another sign of Dad’s rise in the life was the obvious ass-kicking going on during the wedding. Men, hundreds at a time, would line up to pay homage to Dad—maybe even get a word or two with him. A lot of these men viewed weddings as a forum for any special needs they might have—like settling “a beef” or some financial wrongdoing. I remember, when I was younger, all the chaos that always went on whenever Dad attended a wedding or a funeral. There was always a line of men and women hoping to see him. Some would even gather around his table waiting for him to get up so they could grab his ear. The night of my sister’s wedding was no different. I felt so many emotions when Angel got married. I knew it was supposed to be a happy occasion, but I couldn’t get past my own fears. Angel and I used to confide in each other, late at night, before bed. We had thousands of conversations about life—our life. Mostly, we talked about Dad—about how scared we both were because he was in the mob. With Angel leaving, I had no one to confide in, no one to tell me things would be fine. Sure, there was always the telephone, but it wasn’t the same.

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